Archive for December, 2009|Monthly archive page

On a stormy Sunday night, I rushed back to Mecidiyeköy to meet with Özgür and watch Avatar. The film started at 21 and at 20 I was still Bahçelievler and my car’s alarm system was suddenly broke. I and dad disabled the alarm system so I could drive and be on time. It was so rainy that I even stopped listening to music and fully concentrated on the road because the visibility was very low. Anyway it was all worthy.

1. It was the first 3D movie I watched and I loved it. See, the plot is somewhat cliche and there are many movies with cliche plots but have great visuals. Still they are not good for movie buffs. Here, despite a level of cliche you can find in the movie, you will still love it because of the visuals. Boy, they have created really glorious 3D stuff.

2. A very realistic narration of colonial invasion in a Sci-Fi form. White Man exterminating the Indian… However, relatively happy ending here. So not all realistic.

3. The first half: think of it as an anthropologist doing traditional fieldwork among natives, trying to get the native point of view and gone native in the end.

4. Add to the narrative a new Sci-Fi element. Avatar usage. A similar practice seen in Snow Crash and in some other new Sci-Fi novels.

32 days ago, my dearest friend Çetin became a father. The parents named the new born, Ömer Heval. (Heval is comrade/friend in Kurdish). It was a cesarian birth. So we could meet on time to wait for the new arrival:) So far so good. Mum is good, son is healthy. Today, Ömer accompanied us to have a great breakfast. This was the first time he was out (apart from his regular outings to hospital). He was asleep for most of the time, which was certainly more practical for us.

The recommendation adopted by the European Commission on July 15 2009 allows the citizens of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia with biometric passports to enter the Schengen area visa-free from January 2010
Mavi Boncuk |

Pacta sunt servanda L./Ahde vefa TR /agreements must be kept ENG., is a basic principle of civil law and of international law.

( EU must explain this part to Turkey)

In its most common sense, the principle refers to private contracts, stressing that contained clauses are law between the parties, and implies that non-fulfilment of respective obligations is a breach of the pact. The general principle of correct behaviour in commercial praxis — and implies the bona fide — is a requirement for the efficacy of the whole system, so the eventual disorder is sometimes punished by the law of some systems even without any direct penalty incurred by any of the parties.

The EU lifted visa restrictions Saturday for citizens from Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, even though these are in the early stages of the EU membership process, while not extending this Schengen privilege to Turkey, which began accession talks in 2005 and has opened 11 out of 35 chapters in its membership negotiations. Turkey protested and has asked to be included in the Schengen regime, pointing out that, of the Balkan states affected, only Macedonia has attained the status of EU candidate. Serbia has yet to submit a formal application and its entry has been stalled due to its failure to arrest ex-Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, who has been charged with war crimes in the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo.

So DTP MPs decided not to resign because PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan said it was not all right. Some dailies quoted peaceful messages from Mr. Öcalan today. I wonder what he was thinking in the last two months. Because he also contributed by his statements sabotage of Democratic Initiative that lead to the closure of DTP. Now he talks again about peace. Pro-Kurdish politics is as dirty as Turkish Nationalist politics. That’s certain…

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK — This past Saturday, on a crisp afternoon in Copenhagen, Jacob Wheeler and Rick Fuentes, two amateur journalists with the non-profit media start-up the UpTake, walked alongside a mostly peacefully stream of demonstrators. Roughly half of the total police force in Denmark followed in step. Conspicuous among the crowd were the hundreds of ad hoc reporters with serious-looking digital SLRs slung around their necks.

In the early hours of this morning the news of the failure of the Copenhagen summit on climate change hit the news wires. I won’t repeat the individual disappointments as the papers will be full of it today. But I would like to comment on the political implications of this disaster. It shows that there is no effective global politics, only global problems. Read the rest of this entry »

Since I began to use WordPress, I rely on WordPress.com but by my domain name is still registered by Yahoo. Now I move to a third reliable service that will unite all and provide more services. Please be patient for possible awkwardness in the next hours and maybe days:)

from Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog by Rex

Deadlines for graduate school applications are coming up again. Last year I wrote some quick pointers on applying to graduate school but since then I’ve developed my boiler-plate for our school even more as additional requests for information have entered my mailbox. So here is the latest iteration of my advices for applying to graduate school. Although it is written for where I teach, most of what I say is applicable to anywhere. Good luck!

Yesterday, news broke that insurgents used a $25 application available online to hack into US military drone video feeds, and view, copy, and potentially distribute their contents. Hmmmm… Unauthorized copying of audio and video material? Some on Twitter have suggested that we might just send the MPAA or RIAA after them — then, for sure we’ll at last find Bin Laden. But Wired Danger Room’s Noah Shachtman says,

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow:Treehugger photographer Matt McDermott happened to be in the right place when the massive climate demonstrations in Copenhagen broke out, and the site has a great gallery of shots of the action.